About TRAIANVS DECIVS

[Postumus]

Does anyone know how the R.I.C. (ROMAN IMPERIAL COINAGE) catalogue the coin FELICITAS SAECVLI ?
For the R.I.C. (Cohen call it as medallion) is a double sestertius or what ?

[Postumus]

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[ancientjim]

Hi Postumus,

The RIC number for this is 115(a) and it is listed as a double sestertius.  There are three different obverse types for this one, a - radiate and cuirassed, b - radiate and draped, and c - radiate, draped and cuirassed.   The plate coin in RIC is the third type.

Nice coin

[curtislclay]

Virtually everyone today agrees that Decius' coins are double sestertii,
(a) because they show a radiate not laureate portrait, or crescent under bust for Etruscilla, the conventional marks of the double denomination for dupondii, antoniniani, and double aurei, which virtually never appear on earlier or later bronze medallions.
(b) because their average weight is indeed c. 40 grams, about twice that of a sestertius of Decius, without much deviation.  Earlier medallions too often average about twice sestertius weight, but with more underweight and overweight specimens, hence a greater standard deviation.
(c) because they bear the letters S C, the mark of circulating bronze coins from Augustus on, whereas medallions normally omit those letters.
(d) because though scarce, they are considerably commoner than most proper bronze medallions.

[slokind]

Both the art and the preservation are so good that it is, incidentally,  a prime document for the manufacture and appearance of chain mail in the later Empire, IMO.  Often it is difficult to distinguish linked mail from scale armor (where disks of metal are attached to a flexible backing, presumably--you'd want to wear a stout shirt inside of chain mail, but it is flexible as manufactured).   Pat Lawrence.